Facebook, Google Look to Get Into News Delivery

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With social networking garnering more and more users -- specifically, Facebook's 700 million(ish) users -- it's now about how and what to leverage via the platform.

That is, everyone's at the table, so what do they eat? Answer: content. And lots of it.

So Facebook and, to an extent, Google, are meeting with old-media news companies and networks to create a more robust presentation of headlines and stories for their users.

Forbes.com is referencing the initiative as "Facebook editions" -- applications specifically for Facebook -- that go beyond posting a one-off story into a news feed.

This jives with something Mark Zuckerberg said at the launch of FB's video chat. Basically, they're not about user acquisition anymore. Now, it's about allowing "best in class" companies do their thing in an optimized way on Facebook.

So CNN, The Washington Post and Murdoch's The Daily are meeting with Facebook to develop a next-look presence, according to Forbes.

Google is also looking to partner with "selected publishers" in what is rumored to be a portal-type setting. Frankly, any tweak to the existing Google news feed would be welcome. At present it delivers a good many press releases, old news and duplicate headlines. Sometimes the same story will feed into Gmail several times a day, with no real news value being added -- an unfilitered fire hose akin to spam.

MSM and legacy broadcasters, not unlike NBC, would no doubt like to be at the table with Facebook and Google as they cipher what's going to be on the news menu in the coming months and years.